QR957 CGK-DOH

December 31st, 2023

Posts in this series:

Introduction - Island Hopping in Southeast Asia

Review - British Airways Business Class B777-200 Toronto Pearson to London Heathrow

Review - Finnair Business Class A350-900 London Heathrow to Helsinki

Review - Finnair Business Class A350-900 Helsinki to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi

Review - Conrad Bangkok

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Langkawi

Review - Firefly Economy Class ATR72-500 Langkawi to Subang

Review - The Ritz-Carlton Kuala Lumpur

Review - Malaysia Airlines Economy Class B737-800 Kuala Lumpur to Denpasar

Review - Alila Villas Uluwatu

Review - TransNusa Economy Class A320 Denpasar to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta

Review - The Hermitage, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, Jakarta

Review - Qatar Airways Business Class A350-900 Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta to Doha

Review - Qatar Airways Business Class B777-300ER Doha to New York Kennedy

Check-in:

Ugh. How does Qatar keep getting better and better? The last time I flew with Qatar Airways was way before the pandemic, so it’s sufficiently past due for a refresher review. You can check out my previous review here. I’ve only had great experiences on Qatar, and I was very curious to see its current state of affairs, given how much covid has changed everything else. Excuse my French but fuck, Qatar has somehow outdone itself and is absolutely perfect. Let’s get into it.

Our first flight with Qatar was from Jakarta to Doha. Qatar operated out of Jakarta’s Terminal 3, which was the newer terminal at the airport. The check-in area was busy but orderly. We were quickly checked in and invited to use the Garuda lounge.

Lounge:

On the opposite side of the spectrum you have Garuda Indonesia - once a fabulous airline now in sad decline. I’ve read numerous reports suggesting the Garuda lounge was to be avoided. Fortunately for those with PriorityPass, a Plaza Premium Lounge opened somewhat recently and looked to be much more promising. I was happy we gave it a shot.

This particular Plaza Premium had an interesting setup. Upon entry you’d find there’s another reception for the first class section, which I believe was a paid upgrade.

Meanwhile, within the regular lounge there was yet another separate area only for Singapore Airlines passengers.

We stayed in the main lounge as we only had about 30mins to kill. The lounge felt modern with impressive ceiling height. There wasn’t much of a layout to the lounge, as it was one giant room. I liked the big windows, albeit the lounge faced the landside of the airport.

The lounge offered a coffee bar, as well as some buffet items and a live kitchen.

There were a decent selection of items you could order fresh. The menu reads as follows:

We wanted to save room for the onboard catering, so we just tried the noodle soup and the sweet and sour fish. They were edible.

Boarding:

Soon enough it was time to board our flight. When I first started flying Qatar the A350-900s were their best product, back when the airline hadn’t introduced its signature Qsuites. The bird taking us to Doha today was one of its original A350-900s, featuring Collins Aerospace Super Diamond reverse herringbone seats. These seats have been extremely popular with airlines. I reviewed them on Air Canada and American Airlines. Some airlines elected to slap a door on it for their next generation of product, such as British Airways.

Boarding started on time, and we were greeted and directed to our seats. We chose row 7, the bulkhead of the rear business class cabin.

While most airlines have a galley between two business class cabins, Qatar Airways installed a “foyer” instead. The crew would generally set up some kind of snack bar/display here inflight. While it’s no doubt a unique design, I don’t find it to be all that useful. It would’ve been so great if it were a bar. There’s certainly space for it, as Virgin Atlantic has had a bar on its A330s forever.

As you can see, there was no overhead bins in the center section.

The seats were in impeccable shape, from the leather to the wooden surfaces there was not a single dent or scratch.

A350s are my favorite aircraft (that are still in production, RIP A380) to fly on, and the high resolution tail camera was the cherry on top.

So were the individual air nozzles.

We had a very light load today, with a dozen passengers in the front and maybe 60% in the back. Throughout the boarding process, almost every business class flight attendant came by and introduced themselves. A Kenyan lady named Tanya was our primary flight attendant. The Filipina purser Beverly also took care of us. We were offered a pre-departure drink of choice, and I was in disbelief when Tanya told me the 2007 Laurent-Perrier Alexandra rosé was on offer. I asked her three times if she meant the non-vintage LP rosé.

Tanya came back with two flutes, presented us with the bottle and poured at our seat. When you fly business class on Qatar, there’s actually class.

Upon Tanya’s return, we were given the menu and wine list for the flight, as well as slippers and pajamas from the White Company. For an 8-hour flight, we couldn’t have been more spoiled.

The menu and wine list had the New Year 2024 design, as we were flying on NYE. They read as follows:

Before we were ready to go, I popped over to the window seat for takeoff and saw a Turkish Airlines A350 parked next to us. I’ll gladly get on a Turkish plane any day of the week, but at that moment I was happy just where I was.

Inflight:

We were airborne right on schedule, and through the tail camera I caught a glimpse of the last sunset of 2023.

I connected to the free wifi onboard. I forgot if it was free for the whole flight or if it was just an hour. Anyway, the speed was okay.

The crew quickly started preparing for meal service. We ordered our dinner while on the ground, but for those of you not familiar, Qatar executed a true dine-on-demand concept - you could order anything on the menu at any point during the flight. How stunning is this lighting??!!

We were asked if we wanted to try the other champagne, which was the Duval-Leroy Prestige Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru. I was quite relieved, because too much rosé tends to give me a headache. The fact that Qatar was casually pouring a grand cru blanc de blancs in business class while British Airways and American Airlines basically make you beg for the Ruinart Blanc de Blancs in their flagship Chelsea Lounge is saying something…

For more context, United Airlines served Duval-Leroy Brut Reserve in its Polaris business class when I flew with them earlier this year.

Our tables were diligently set. I do have to say that Qatar definitely copied the faux candle idea from Turkish Airlines, though.

We were first served a scallop amuse-bouche, which was flavorful and had a great texture.

For appetizers, my partner chose the classic Arabic mezze with pita bread, while I had the beef tataki with onion ponzu, edamame, potato salad, shimeji mushrooms and lotus root.

I was expecting the tataki to be raw beef, but in reality it was more like sliced roast beef. The fried lotus root on the other hand, though, was exceptional. Between boarding and dinner, the FAs probably refilled our champagne four or five times, so suffice to say I was moderately (adequately) intoxicated at this point. To progress to main course, I switched to the 2012 Château Gruaud Larose Sarget, which is a St. Julien.

I went with the Indonesian option - nasi uduk with chicken bakar skewer, boiled egg, tempeh, crispy potatoes and sambal. I suggested the gulf-style prawn machboos with daqoos sauce, crispy shallots, raisins and almonds to my partner, since I’ve never had bad machboos on a Middle Eastern airline.

We were beyond stuffed at this point, but for the sake of this blog, I forced us to get cheese and dessert, which was pandan crêpes with coconut cream and palm sugar syrup. To help wash it all down, there was a glass of Niepoort 20 yo tawny.

Dinner concluded with another Diptyque scented towel and a box of chocolates from Läderach. These used to be Godiva. To be honest I liked the old towel service more because you could choose between a hot or cold towel, and now it’s exclusively cold. Although I acknowledge the collaboration with Diptyque was a genuine effort from Qatar’s perspective. The entire meal was personalized to our own pace and preferences, largely thanks to the empty rear cabin. Apart from the absence of caviar (some airlines don’t even serve caviar in first class) and a larger seat, it was akin to a first class experience. Another thing I want to point out was that later during the flight, an economy class flight attendant passed my seat and noticed my glass was empty. She picked it up and asked if she could get me another one. She wasn’t responsible for my section, but she did so because she was part of a team. I’m not naming names here but FAs on some airlines won’t even pick up plastic wrappers when they walk by.

We managed to get a bit of rest after a huge dinner. Prior to landing, Tanya returned and asked if she could get us anything else. I requested Qatar’s delicious karak chai, and she put it in a to-go cup so I could enjoy it during descent.

The purser Beverly wished us a happy New Year and a safe onward journey to the US.

On Arrival:

We had a smooth touchdown at Hamad International and were pulled into a remote stand. Normally this would be dreadful, but Qatar managed to mitigate the inconvenience for premium passengers by offering a specially configured shuttle bus.

And how can you hate on such a killer engine view.

What a flawless flight! I have hyped up Qatar so much to my partner, I was actually a bit anxious before our flight. You know how you hype up a new guy you’ve been seeing to your girlies, and now it’s time for them to finally meet? Well, worry not, Qatar is like the airline equivalent of “finance, trust fund, 6’5, blue eyes”. Only instead of a trust fund Qatar Airways runs on sovereign wealth🤪.